Good Evening, I am deeply honored to be representing the voice of our class this evening. Thank you for giving me this privilege.
Family and friends, we are so pleased for you to be joining us here on such an incredible night. We know many of you have traveled long distances to celebrate this accomplishment with us and it means so much to have you here. You have had to put up with a lot of self-doubt and melt down sessions from these nursing students over the last two years. Thank you for not committing us. We are deeply grateful to you for your encouragement.
To the Faculty, we greatly appreciate your instruction and hope to make this class the one that brings Research College of Nursing a great deal of pride for the leaders you have helped develop.
To the Faculty, we greatly appreciate your instruction and hope to make this class the one that brings Research College of Nursing a great deal of pride for the leaders you have helped develop.
Like all of you I have spent some time dreaming of this day. Well friends, we are finally here. It has taken thirty years for me to get here and most of you only four years, so I don’t know if I am the most qualified speaker for this event tonight, but I am here now and your stuck with me.
When I was a little girl, I idolized nurses like Florence Nightingale, Clara Barton and Edith Cavell. As soon as I was old enough to volunteer in our Springfield, Missouri hospital, I signed up immediately. Some of you may not know what a candy striper is, so I brought along a picture to show you, at least what historians from the 1980’s think one looked like.
Before I started to work on this commencement speech I asked many of you what words came to mind when you thought about our class. Here are some of the words you used to describe us… inclusive, friendly, kind, hardworking, innovative and mindful. All those things are true, but do you know what I have experienced getting to know you? This class is truly made up of some incredible personalities that I believe with all my heart, are going to be leaders in the medical field for years to come.
You see leaders don’t just do what everyone else does. They think different, they act different and they offer solutions to problems in unique and innovative ways. Those are the characteristic we bring to the table.
What makes us different? Well after spending two and a half years with you I can tell you that as a class we genuinely have caring woven into our fabric. We don’t just view nursing as a profession, we view nursing as a calling.
We don’t just view nursing as a profession, we view nursing as a calling.
Like Edith Cavell:
The headlines read Nurse Cavell’s Last Hours- the British Chaplain’s Moving Story- Heroic Spirit Unshakable to The Last. (The Guardian News) The year was 1915 and World War I was being waged between allied forces and Germany. Edith Cavell was a British nurse serving as a director of the nursing school in Brussels, Belgium. She gave her life on October 12, 1915 for her deep-rooted philosophy that it was her duty to care for both German and allied troops alike, despite her personal beliefs about the war. In the face of German opposition, it is believed that Nurse Cavell helped care for and smuggle over two hundred allied soldiers out of Brussels. On the day of her execution it was recorded that the German firing squad was “moved with pity and aimed wide” killing her quickly and offering her what is called the “blow of mercy”. (The Guardian News)
Why did she do it? Why did Nurse Cavell give her life for the belief that she was to care for all those placed in her path? According to accounts Edith felt she had been called by God to serve others through the vocation of nursing. The divine calling was greater than German mandates and her conviction that all life was valuable was the corner stone of who she was. For Edith, being a nurse was more than an occupation it was a deeply woven spiritual conviction that ultimately lead to her death.
Many of you plan to spend your careers serving in other countries in the Peace Core as medical relief to some of the poorest people on our planet; and others of you hope to serve as nurse practitioners in rural communities right here at home, still others of you want to teach future generations of nurses. The common thread; however, is that we have a sincere willingness to care for those in need.
Like Edith Cavell, we have been called to serve the afflicted, the disabled and the sick. As individuals called to public service, I know we will cling to integrity, be intentional in the advocacy of others and protect the interest of all our patients. As mindful healthcare providers, we will be willing to adjust our methods and processes to accomplish what is best for our patients. Nursing is an honorable profession and I know we have these characteristics as a class.
May we all be proud to say we were part of the Research College of Nursing Class of 2019, the class that produced the most innovative leaders in the industry.
My vision for our class it that we will be able to shine a light of hope into dark and desperate situations and use our education and life experiences to influence, cultivate and encourage individuals, families, and communities. May we all be proud to say we were part of the Research College of Nursing Class of 2019, the class that produced the most innovative leaders in the industry. Leaders who pursued nursing as a calling and not just an occupation, may we like Edith be “ Unshakable to the Last.”
